converting video formats (For Hasbro's VideoNow) I know the

okayama · Member Joined: 06 Sep 2003

Is there a way to convert a video (mpeg, mpg, avi) to another format?
I'm wanting to get it to something like, 80x80 with 4-bit greyscale.
This is the type of format VideoNow uses, and I'm wanting to try and convert some Futurerama video's over to that format and try on the Hasbro VideoNow product.

Just to show you what I'm talking about, here's a picture. I know the video sucks at that format, but it's for my kid. So no big deal.

vitualis · Moderator Joined: 01 Oct 2000 Location: Australia

Go have a look at http://www.slashdot.org

A few days ago, there was an article from someone trying to do exactly that...

Regards.
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okayama · Member Joined: 06 Sep 2003

Thanks, that's what I was looking for.

gerardchau · Member Joined: 18 Aug 2002

i am unable to find the posting man.. >.<

okayama · Member Joined: 06 Sep 2003

Here's a link:
http://www.wsu.edu/~zocher/

He hasn't posted any thing since Sept 7, so I'm not sure if he's still working on it. I hope he is and finishes this project.

impmon2 · Member Joined: 31 Jan 2002 Location: United States

So do I. A $50 player for little kids sure beats the risk of losing or breaking a $500 portable DVD player.

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

http://devcybiko.com:8080/modules.php?name=Journal&file=searc ... =GregSmith

i've done some reverse engineering on this product. the link above will lead you to my journal on my fansite (for the defunct cybiko handheld computer).

i'll post updates as they occur.

like you, i want to create custom videos for my daughter.

greg
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-greg
(author of videothen)

RabidDog · Old B. Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Location: UK

their mobile phones have got better displays than that thing! In fact some watches have better displays than that.
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GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

actually, not.

most mobile phones are monochrome and cost between $250 and $300

the video now has (barely) acceptable resolution for the task at hand.

but i would recommend waiting until after christmas to buy one. i anticipate the price will drop to $25 or less by next summer.
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-greg
(author of videothen)

lordsmurf · Posted: Oct 21, 2003 22:46

This thing will flop like the little HITCLIPS music did. Within months, they were on clearance for mere pennies.
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GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

well all the better for us. that means the market will be flooded with hundreds of these items for pennies per pound. all the more reason to know the file format, so we few can create our own videos-on-the-go.
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-greg
(author of videothen)

impmon2 · Member Joined: 31 Jan 2002 Location: United States

It would be nice if they did bomb and end up in bargain bins. I could pick up a few and if anything happens to it, I'll just open a new one and burn a new disc. It probably won't get much if at all from a pawn shop.

lordsmurf · Posted: Oct 22, 2003 20:06

NightWing · Member Joined: 19 Mar 2001

I though the catch was the odd size CD media for it?

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

it turns out the extra media (3.5" instead of 3.25") is just to make the capacity larger - i think they wanted to get up to 30 minutes. it also has the effect of making the disk unplayable in mom or dad's cd player where it would make an unpleasant noise. but i've successfully copied the tracks from the original sampler disk to a 3.25" mini-cdr and it plays. so a 3.25" disk is an option.
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-greg
(author of videothen)

NightWing · Member Joined: 19 Mar 2001

Greate!

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

there is still a problem of the "key" disk...

it seems that the device samples the innermost track at power-up. i'm guessing its reading the vtoc. when i create my copies the vtoc apparently doesnt have the information the device requires.

my question is - does anyone here know how to read the vtoc or any other information stored in the center hub of a CD?
_________________
-greg
(author of videothen)

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

i authored a videonow cd last night. a 13 minute bugs bunny video.

i will clean up the code and add a gui tonight. then post to sourceforge.net under the project name "VideoThen"
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-greg
(author of videothen)

impmon2 · Member Joined: 31 Jan 2002 Location: United States

Woo-woo! Now I have no reason not to get it. Beside I believe at one store the Video Now is on sale for a paltry $40.

"VideoThen" is a cute name.

Now to find a way to batch convert 130 Thundercats episodes (22 min each) to VideoNow format. Would I need to convert them all via VituraDUB or can your VideoThen handle the video conversion?

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

videothen accepts as input an .avi with 80x80 greyscale and 8-bit audio. so virtualdub does all the hard work.

edit: I have a test version of videothen that runs as a batch but its very raw. i will keep you in mind for version 2 of videothen which will take command-line options to run in batch mode.
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-greg
(author of videothen)

lordsmurf · Posted: Oct 29, 2003 08:02

impmon2 · Member Joined: 31 Jan 2002 Location: United States

Better than nothing.

Unless you want to donate a portable DVD player?

FWIW it only takes me 8 minutes to convert a single episode to 80x80 greyscale and each files are under 20MB. Now to get the JAVA converter when it's released...

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

i released videothen on sourceforge.net

http://sourceforge.net/projects/videothen/

enjoy
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-greg
(author of videothen)

tomoki · Member Joined: 02 Nov 2003

Coolies! And at a great time too, Toys R Us is having a sale on their VideoNow from now until Nov. 22. $40 for the player and each video is $2 off.

(note to mods: I don't work for Toys R Us and I won't get any benifet for plugging Toys R Us. It's in this month's "Big Book" ads from Toys R Us.)

tomoki · Member Joined: 02 Nov 2003

I'm running into problem and I'm not sure why. Here's the screenshot of the DOS box with the error messages:

The VideoThen reported unexpected EOF. I've tried a few different video files and it seems to happen everytime during converting to WAV, about 1/4th of the way through. THe rendering process goes without trouble.

Any idea?

I have 2.4GHz P4, 1GB RAM, combined hard drive totaling nearly 500GB (350GB free) and Windows XP home with SP1 pack.

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

yes, someone else has a similar problem. try checking the audio sampling rate in virtualdub. make sure it is 44100 hz - some videos use another rate.
_________________
-greg
(author of videothen)

tomoki · Member Joined: 02 Nov 2003

I tried that and had VDub change the audio rate to 44.1K Now VideoThen can last until half way before it stops with an EOF error. I checked back with earlier video, the originsl rate was 22050 Hz

<hypothical mode> Hmmm... I wonder if I somehow get the audio rate to 88.2K, masybe VideoThen would be able to finish the process before getting EOF? </hypothical mode>

I did make sure the audio is set to 8 bit mono and no compression for either audio or video. Video is reduced to 80x80 greyscale.

EDIT: I think I have this solved. I'm not sure why it worked this time but I flipped the order of the video filter in VDub and VideoThen now works without getting an EOF. It seems the filter order may be important.

PS here's a quick trick to loading VideoThen without having to open a DOS box and typing in long command. Go to the folder where VideoThen is stored, create a new text file, put in "java -classpath videothen.jar com.alcorgrp.videothen.VideoThen" (without the wuotes), save it, and then rename the file to VideoThen.bat. Just double-click it and it loads. There are still some uses for the old DOS Batch command...

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

sounds like you have it licked.

i apologize for the problems. i have one other "customer" and she had the same issue.

what i may do is "zip" the project up into a zip file and deliver the .bat and .cfg files for the configuration.

have you actually burned a vncd disc yet?
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-greg
(author of videothen)

tomoki · Member Joined: 02 Nov 2003

Yes. I burned a sample on a 3" and tried it out. It worked. The filter order should have been greyscale first, and then 80x80 reduction.

Now if only there were some way to get the disc to stop spinning for the swap. Do you plan to try and figure out the "key" in hope the swap wouldn't been neededin hte future?

GregSmith · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Location: Richmond, VA 23832

I think the key is very simple: you must have a 3.5" disk with exactly 30 minutes of video on it. I believe this because the sampler cd comes with a blank track on the end that fills out the rest of the (unused) disk. if ever we can find a vender selling 3.5" disks then the key issue will be solved.

i dont wait for the disk to slow down. i just stop the key disk with my finger and remove it. then when i put the vncd in i give it a little push to get it started.
_________________
-greg
(author of videothen)